Jack McElroy: Is it time for 'Doonesbury' to end?

Has "Doonesbury's" time passed? That's a question the News Sentinel's Editorial Board will be contemplating this week.

Garry Trudeau, creator of the iconic comic strip, announced last week that he will be taking an indefinite leave to work on another project. Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes "Doonesbury," will on March 3 shift to "Flashbacks," sequences satirizing events dating back to the strip's origins. Sort of a "History According to Garry Trudeau."

So should we go with the reruns, or move on to another strip that's keeping up with current affairs?

Trudeau has been drawing "Doonesbury" since 1970 when he adapted a strip he'd created for the Yale newspaper. In the tradition of the great "Pogo," "Doonesbury" was part comic, part editorial cartoon.

Over the years, the elite and powerful of the nation made frequent appearances, though often not in corporeal form. President George W. Bush was at first symbolized by a Stetson, and later by a Roman legionnaire's helmet. President Bill Clinton was a waffle.

Trudeau won a Pulitzer Prize for his work in 1975, and the cartoon often influenced the national dialogue. When a series portrayed George H.W. Bush putting his manhood in a blind trust, the then-vice president unloaded on the cartoonist, and when "Doonesbury" ran the names of soldiers who died in the invasion of Iraq, conservative pundits demanded the strip be pulled from newspapers.

Trudeau has taken leaves of absence in the past. In the mid-1980s, he stopped drawing for almost two years, using the time to work on a Broadway musical and to update his characters. Last summer he took a few months off to work on a streaming video project for Amazon Studios called "Alpha House."

The comedy show, starring John Goodman and Bill Murray, is about four GOP senators sharing a house in Washington. Amazon has now decided to renew the show for another season, and Trudeau will be too busy to create daily strips. He will keep drawing the Sunday "Doonesbury," however.

"There's no way of knowing how many seasons of ‘Alpha House' lie ahead," said Trudeau in making his announcement. "I could be back drawing ‘Doonesbury' full time in the fall."

But maybe not. In The Boston Globe, Trudeau, now 65, indicated he is steering his career in a new direction:

"It's now become common — even necessary — for my colleagues in art and journalism to move laterally as the media landscape changes. The comics were once an enormously influential part of the cultural conversation, but now it's streaming video that's a leading edge. We all have to adapt."

This past week, emails were bouncing among Scripps editors asking for ideas on what to do next. Some are considering other politically oriented comic strips, such as "Candorville" by Darrin Bell or "Prickly City" by Scott Stantis. Others will stick with the reruns and see if Trudeau returns to full-time work this fall.

I'm open to suggestions. "Doonesbury" has been a great comic for more than 40 years. But if Trudeau is moving on, is it time for this paper to do likewise?